Martin Lewis to Sue Facebook over ‘Fake’ Ads

Martin Lewis, a British journalist and money-saving expert, has said he’ll sue Facebook for defamation for publishing fake ads with his name.

According to MoneySavingExpert founder, the social media platform published more than fifty adverts featuring his name and face that caused reputational damage to him.

Lewis will file court papers at the High Court for a defamation case against the California-based company on Monday, according to BBC.

He said any damages he wins from Facebook would be donated to anti-fraud charities.

Lewis said several of the adverts with titles such as Bitcoin Code or Cloud Trader were operating as fronts for binary trading firms outside European Union (EU).

He said unlike advertising companies like Outbrain and Revcontent, Facebook has failed to remove such adverts despite his repeated complaints.

Facebook, however, has denied Lewis’ allegations of facilitating scammers, saying misleading ads on its network are strictly prohibited and any reported are taken down.

The journalist says Facebook published more than 50 adverts featuring his name and face that tarnished his reputation

“We do not allow adverts which are misleading or false on Facebook and have explained to Martin Lewis that he should report any adverts that infringe his rights and they will be removed,” the company said in a statement.

“We are in direct contact with his team, offering to help and promptly investigating their requests, and only last week confirmed that several adverts and accounts that violated our advertising policies had been taken down.”

Lewis’ lawsuit is likely to further increase Facebook’s woes as the company is already facing public outrage over the reports that it allowed political-advertising firm Cambridge Analytica to collect information of its about 50 million users without their permission during 2016’s U.S presidential election.

The London-based data-mining firm, which was affiliated with President Donald Trump campaign, conducted a fake survey through an app to gather personal information of users, which it used to influence elections.

Nearly a dozen class-lawsuits were filed against the social network, its founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) David Wehner, and board members in different U.S courts by company’s stakeholders and general users over data-harvesting.

The scandal caused Facebook shares to significantly decline and forced 33-year-old Zuckerberg to make his first-ever appearance in the U.S Congress, where he apologized for his company’s role in the scandal and promised to ensure that such thing does not happen again.